The reason was that under the auspices of these two howlers it was lawful for a man to marry his dead wife’s sister but not legal for a woman to wed her deceased husband’s brother.

E4

Have you heard of the ‘Deceased Wife’s Sister’s Marriage Act’ of 1907 and the ‘Deceased Brother’s Widow’s Marriage Act’ of 1921 which, in England, were considered somewhat of a classic in law-making bungles, because during those hectic intermarriage years it was possible for an offspring to be the legitimate child of the father and yet remain the illegitimate child of the mother. The reason was that under the auspices of these two howlers it was lawful for a man to marry his dead wife’s sister but not legal for a woman to wed her deceased husband’s brother.

So consider this: Two brothers A and B marry two sisters C and D. That is, A marries C and B marries D. Then A and D die. Now, can B and C marry? According to one law they can, according to the other they can’t. But suppose they did marry and produced offspring O. Wouldn’t O then be the father’s legitimate child but still remain the mother’s illegitimate ditto? Not bad, no? But what do you suppose the child should have been called? How about DoubleCross?

But if, on the other hand, you get your high from things that cool other things then let’s also suppose you keep your refrigerator in the kitchen and it’s a very hot day. Now if you close the door of your kitchen and open the door of the fridge in order to cool the room a little — would the strategy work? It should because there would be cool air coming into the room, right? Or would there? Think it over.

DEAR MS

(The problem was: “A deaf person robs some belongings of a blind man. A dumb person sees this. Now, how can he tell the blind person that the deaf person is the thief? Make no assumptions, like having another person around to help.” — MS)

Differently-Labelled-Dept:

Since the dumb person cannot convey the info to the blind man, he gives a tight slap to the deaf person. Now the deaf person shouts out loudly saying “I did not rob you but the blind man; why did you slap me?” On hearing this the blind man immediately will know that the deaf man has robbed him.

• Alan D’Souza, iamaland@gmail.com

While the deaf person is stealing the blind person’s belongings, the dumb cannot speak but can write in Braille, which can be felt by the blind person, who can therefore know that the deaf person is the thief.

• Ami Shah, ami_shah165@yahoo.com

If the blind person doesn’t understand Braille, then the dumb person just has to have a piece of wire. He can shape the wire in the form of alphabets and let the blind person feel them one by one to convey the message.

• Saifuddin S F Khomosi, saif_sfk@hotmail.com

(The second problem was: When a person is thrown in judo, he invariably slaps the floor or mat at the moment of impact to prevent injury. How does that work? — MS)

Falling-Slap-Dept:

Force is measured in Newtons. The forces acting in this situation is impact and gravitational. When he is thrown, the gravitational force pulls him towards the ground and the force being applied is downwards. If the person resists this, he uses his own force to push himself in the opposite direction of gravity making it even more painful when he falls. But when he uses his body force with the gravitational pull by slapping the floor the pain is minimised.

• Ayush Sudheer, ayushs2001@gmail.com

(Actually, to put it more simply, the slapping increases the contact area of the body with the floor at the moment of impact, thereby decreasing the impact force per unit area. This is especially desirable if the fall is on the rib cage area. The slap also tends to rotate the trunk of the body away from the impact and, thus, further protects it. — MS)

ENDGAME

A young man in Perth, Australia, offers a pretty girl a lift in his private jet saying no matter where she’s headed, he won’t be going out of his way. So where was he headed?

(To get in touch with Mukul, mail him at mukul.mindsport@gmail.com)

• Mindsport